Thursday, February 18, 2016

It's been
a year of depressing news on all sorts of fronts – in fact make that twelve
months since the year is still pretty young. Nevertheless, this month has witnessed
what I believe to be a major turnaround in South Africa’s fortunes. I’m not talking
about the economy or a change in direction of the government or any other
sudden positive development. I’m talking about one woman who stood up and said
no, and kept saying no despite being denigrated and threatened. And who kept on
doing it until she won.

Thuli
Madonsela started life as the daughter of immigrants from Swaziland to
apartheid South Africa. They were ‘informal traders’ – people who sell things
at street markets and make a small profit by buying in bulk from suppliers and
splitting up the goods into packages that people can afford. She went to
school in Soweto in the years of violence and friction with the South African police, and then studied at the University of Swaziland. She obtained a law degree from
the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg in 1990. After obtaining her
degree, she worked with the trade union movement and the United Democratic Front
– essentially the internal wing of the ANC in the last years of apartheid - and she
is a long term member of the ANC. In 1996, she was part of the team that drafted the South
African Constitution.

In 2014 she made Time magazine's list of the world's 100 most influential people in the Leadership category, and last year she was awarded two honorary doctorates by two of the country’s
leading universities. She carries a
heavy workload and is a single mother of two; her husband died very young.

Before the
first democratic elections, she was offered nomination for an ANC seat as a
member of parliament. She declined
because she felt that she could contribute more actively. She has certainly done so.

In October
2009, President Jacob Zuma appointed her as Public Protector, a position
established by the Constitution tostrengthen constitutional democracy and
good governance. It’s independent from the state and has the power to
investigate and make recommendations on improper dealings within government,
which hamper service-delivery, abuse taxpayers’ money and perpetuate poverty
and inequality. No doubt Zuma expected her to be grateful, and restrict
her activities to the day to day matters that came to her office. Big mistake.

Nkandla upgraded

As he
signed off on her appointment, Zuma’s mind was elsewhere. He was in the process
of a major upgrade to his country home known as Nkandla. I mean a
major upgrade – around $25 million at the time. And he didn’t have – or certainly
didn’t mean to spend – the money. That was no problem. He was going to make the
state pay for it i.e. the taxpayers.

Pretty soon
Madonsela was involved in some pretty high profile matters. She pointed out the corruption of the ANC
Youth League leader – Julius Malema – and the fallout from that eventually
drove him from the ANC to form his own radical party. People in high places started to feel
uncomfortable with their supposedly tame ANC-appointed Public Protector.

Inevitably,
journalists discovered what was going on at Nkandla. Zuma shrugged it off, but
questions started to be asked in parliament. Eventually the president explained
that what had taken place was a “security upgrade.” Because of his role as president, he needed
additional security and areas for safe assembly and public gatherings. These
included an arena as an “evacuation area” and a “fire pool” to store water in
case of fire in the thatch-roofed complex.
Hmm.

'Fire' Pool

The 'safety arena'. Looks a lot like a retaining wall. Coincidence, surely!

The case
was referred to Madonsela who took her time to do a fair and thorough
investigation. Her findings in 2014 were that Zuma and his family had enriched
themselves at the taxpayers’ expense and that he should pay back much of the money. She was immediately vilified as having
exceeded her authority, produced inaccurate conclusions, and she was even
accused of being an agent for the CIA! (The last was withdrawn after she
threatened to sue.) She was also told she had acted outside the constitution. Strange – after all she helped write it.

The
president ignored her recommendations and provided his own report which cleared
him of all wrong-doing. He has survived many scandals; this one too would pass.

But it didn’t.
In a government and civil service fraught with corruption and inefficiency, few
things stick in the public’s attention, but this was one of them. The
opposition parties wouldn’t let it go away. And eventually, when they were
blocked by the ANC majority in parliament, they – and Madonsela - took the
matter to the Constitutional Court (South Africa’s equivalent to the Supreme
Court).

The Constitutional Court - without Fire Pool

The Court
heard the case last week. Judgment is reserved, but it’s all over. Zuma’s
council admitted that he was wrong, that the Public Protector did have the
authority she had claimed under the constitution, that the Zuma report had no
status.

Will this
mark the end of corruption in South Africa? Certainly not. It does mark the end
of a culture that the highest in the land are above the law. And it has shaken
the government, still reeling from Zuma’s arbitrary firing of the finance
minister at the start of the year. It’s
not the end of corruption, but it just may be the end of President Jacob Zuma.

7 comments:

And more power to her. Can we clone her, please? I'd like to set her on David Cameron and his nasty wee clique of cronies.All that, and losing her husband so young, leaving her with a child. Is that where she draws her strength from.

Great story, Michael, thanks! I've thought many times over the past decade that the US consitution needs an ammendment stating something along the lines of, "Just SEEMING to act in a corrupt or unjust manner is grounds for impeachment of any elected official." Those trusted with a society's power must stick to the greatest transparency and integrity. Even a whiff of anything else should be grounds for termination. Well, at least firing. I don't believe in the death penalty, after all...

We need one of her here, believe me. Almost the same thing is happening here. The president of the republic has had a big white house constructed for himself, which is ugly and superfluous. Unfortunately, we don't have any Madonsela here yet.Crossing the fingers though. And sadly, most of the public who vote for him don't seem to care much. May be it's just me, and a few who think like myself.